Excavations 2018

This is a temporary blog for presenting the excavations of 2018 at Perdigões. Posts from 2011 to 2017 are still available.

Friday, 11 May 2018

0261 - Colors / Cores

Today was the last they of this first phase of 2018 campaign
at Perdigões. We didn’t finish the excavation of tomb 4. Under the deposition
of human remains there is another layer that get thicker at the back of the
chamber and that has also human depositions. We will excavate it in next July.

But an interesting thing was noticed at this last day. The base of the internal wall of the tholos is
made of gabbro stones. This seems to be so in all the preserved perimeter of
the wall, except in a place where there is a diorite stone. The darkness of the
diorite makes a remarkable contrast with the whiteness of the gabbro stones,
and it is precisely at North. This specific and punctual use of a different and
contrasting raw material can hardly be by chance. And it is accordingly to the
use of different raw materials, that provide different colors and textures, in
the European megalithism, as forms communicating, marking, or expressing dichotomies
or dualities. A line of research that has been developed for some years now,
and it is also reaching Iberia.